The cockroaches are back! Why did cockroaches disappear from Russian apartments? You will be surprised to know the reason! Why cockroaches are returning en masse to the apartments of Russians.

Even without a head, pests do well. If for some reason they lose it, a kind of clot forms instead of it, although the cockroach continues to live. He can breathe with his whole body, dies from the inability to get drunk in about a week.

Increased radiation levels do not have a lethal effect on household pests. Under such conditions, they even continue to breed.

Conditions for the appearance of cockroaches

Pests do not like cold, they often settle behind batteries, near the stove. Next to the bedding of pets (cats, dogs), cockroaches will not settle, they do not tolerate such a neighborhood.

Insects love to climb into electrical appliances - TVs, computers, toasters. Laying eggs there, they can disable complex equipment.

Why do cockroaches appear in a clean apartment?

Cockroaches in a clean apartment may appear:

through common sewer or water pipes;
through general ventilation;
from a common garbage chute;
with old things when moving;
with the things of someone who came to visit;
with a postal parcel;
with the delivery of furniture from a furniture store;
with things from the trip.

There are many options for insect penetration. It is important to notice this in a timely manner, to begin extermination.

Intrusion from neighbors

When neighbors do not want to kill household pests, they can be forced to do so through the courts. First you need to get a document that confirms the unsanitary conditions in the neighboring apartment. Such a document is issued by the management company or the sanitary housing inspection. If neighbors are trying to get rid of pests, you need to agree to take action at the same time. It will be more efficient.

Insects can crawl through gaps in the floor/ceiling, cracks in walls, loose baseboards, through sockets. They move along the entrance, live in attics, in basements.

Penetration through the garbage chute

To do this, a cockroach - a scout inspects the premises, if it finds it suitable, then several dozen individuals move to a new living space. But cleanliness, lack of moisture and available food may not please the scout.

Tatyana, Saratov:

“We have a garbage chute in a multi-storey building. It was a lot of trouble for him at first. Cockroaches climbed as if they were asking for food. The children were afraid to take out the trash. We wouldn't be able to do it on our own. First, they called a special service, they put us to death, but they gave a guarantee for only half a year. It's so little. Then we ourselves began to sprinkle some kind of poison inside every week. Each floor is different. On the Internet, young people read that it is necessary to poison them in different ways. Now there are no insects, not even flies in summer.”

When moving

Penetration with things of guests

Matthew. Nizhny Novgorod Region:

“A girlfriend came to my daughter - a student to stay in the summer. Apparently, she brought us cockroaches with her things, because we didn’t have them before. In the student hostel, of course, there are a lot of them getting divorced, we ourselves were students, remember. Cockroaches do not take root in our country, we know how to prepare boric acid for them. They don’t like it, the students weren’t happy, they all died.”

When buying used equipment

Brought back from a trip

Anastasia, Kemerovo:

Receive by mail

Glory, Belebey:

“We ordered things from an online store. They came without problems, but with an unpleasant surprise - a cockroach jumped out. We have a claim to the post office - they, of course, refuse, they refer to the sender, I don’t know who to believe. There was no food in the parcel, what should he do there. Here at the post office now they sell everything, like in a store, cockroaches can start up. You have to be careful."

Along with the purchase

When buying things or other non-food items, insects get into bags by accident. In departments with products, it can happen all the time. This is especially true for markets that are poorly controlled.

Reasons for pests to take root

If you succeeded in finding out why cockroaches start up in the apartment, then you need to decide why they take root. Before their penetration, there were no such pests, why did these settle?

Alexey, Vologda:

“We live in an apartment building. In terms of cockroaches, not everything is in order. Not everyone wants to starve with modern means. But, I think that only modern powerful chemistry can defeat them. They are all used to eating, digesting any poison. It's hard to get rid of them. It is necessary to poison the whole house, then there will be no problems. And then some feed them with an egg, others draw with crayons, but there is no sense. Just call a special team. Cockroaches do not care about radiation, what can I say.

Why do they reappear?

After a certain time, a new generation of pests is born. They scatter across the area. Served on the eyes of the owners of the apartment, who think that their former cockroaches have returned to them.

Permanent prevention

Constantly ensuring cleanliness in the house, yet sometimes you have to deal with the appearance of cockroaches. Now knowing the reason for this, you can take measures to get rid of unwanted guests. It is better to prepare - to take preventive measures, this will protect the house from many pests.

Why did ancient insects disappear so quickly, which arose 350 million years ago, survived, unlike dinosaurs, all natural disasters, are especially resistant to chemicals and perfectly adapted to warm human habitation, in which there is always?

An exhaustive answer has not yet been found. There are, however, a number of assumptions.

Human factor

Electromagnetic waves.

Indeed, the urban environment is oversaturated with a variety of electromagnetic radiation: at standard GSM and GPRS mobile communication frequencies in the range of 900 and 1800 MHz, in the range of television channels from 50 to 230 MHz, at a microwave oven frequency of 2450 MHz, in the computer range of 20 Hz-1000 MHz.

It would seem that a very suitable explanation of where they go. There were even coincidences in time and place, when after the installation, for example, of the masts of mobile communication repeaters, insects disappeared from the surrounding houses.

However, none laboratory test did not confirm that electromagnetic radiation somehow harm cockroaches.

GMOs and preservatives in food. The Prussians have been eating crumbs from the human table for centuries - and in this menu, unfortunately, potentially dangerous, but widely used substances have appeared. The list is headed by: modified starch, pyrophosphates (preservatives and baking powder), modified soy.

Data of laboratory researches are ambiguous. There is information that pyrophosphates can reduce the ability to, and the consumption of GMO products can change hereditary traits. Nevertheless, such causes are clearly not enough for the mass simultaneous death of perfectly adapted insects.

Radiation or chemical background of cities. Maybe this is the real reason why the cockroaches disappeared in the apartments? The ecological situation in large industrial centers is far from ideal. At the same time, it is difficult to imagine such pollution of the environment in which people could live, but mustachioed neighbors could not.

The endurance of insects to chemical and radiation effects is much higher than that of mammals. Red mustachioed six-legged creatures, in particular, are excellent candidates for repopulating a planet after a nuclear war.

REFERENCE! Why would cockroaches survive a nuclear bomb? The lethal dose of radiation for them is 20 times higher than the human one.

Infrasonic and acoustic impact. Supporters of this theory see the reason for the disappearance in the low-frequency vibrations that accompany technological processes at industrial enterprises and even in the bell ringing of many built and restored temples.

Infrasound, of course, is unpleasant for many living beings, and the alarm has been a remedy against evil spirits since ancient times.

It is only unclear why red cockroaches are selectively affected.

Synthetic materials in everyday life. Popular and massive renovation- these are, most often, plastic coatings and claddings, synthetic wallpaper, linoleum and chemically impregnated carpet. Such a “tasteless” filling of the premises could well have been not to the liking of insects - but they also disappeared in those apartments where no repairs were made.

Sanitation. Indeed, the elimination of garbage chutes, hermetic and durable plastic food packaging, plastic bags for storing food waste have seriously reduced the cockroach nutritional base. In addition, household food stocks have become much smaller.

However, it is not so easy to starve cockroaches - they can go 40 days without food and digest, thanks to the bacterial microflora of the intestine, completely inedible paper.

Causes of a biological nature

Perhaps it is biological factors that are to blame for why the cockroaches disappeared from the apartments?

There is an assumption that the red cockroach could not compete with who willingly settle in a warm and satisfying human housing. After all, in the same way, insects survived in their time in the harsh biological warfare.

However, no one has yet observed the simultaneous existence of cockroaches and ants indoors or the settlement of ants in cockroach territories. Red cockroaches always disappear first, and only then, after a noticeable time, the vacated ecological niche can be occupied by yellow pharaoh ants.

global changes

The reasons for the mass disappearance of cockroaches are also called:

Ozone depletion, climate change, magnetic pole shift. As a result, the leading biorhythms of cockroaches go astray. It is not clear, then, why the same fate does not befall the entire terrestrial biosphere.
The supernatural sense of these insects on coming cataclysms and disasters: economic crisis, major wars, large-scale catastrophes. At the same time, the “great exodus” of cockroaches is already 8-10 years old, and the end of the world has not yet come.

Apparently, none of the theories given by itself explains the apparent absence of cockroaches in major cities. Perhaps several factors are working together, or perhaps these geniuses of adaptation, survival and endurance have not disappeared anywhere.

What if red cockroaches simply migrated to more suitable places for themselves? Maybe you should ask not why, but where did the cockroaches from the apartments disappear? Basements, manholes, old high-rise buildings, hostels and prisons?

Quietly and slowly, generation after generation, they mutate, adapt, and one day, strengthened, hardened and persistent, they will return as massively as they left. Will the citizens be happy with them?

We calmly go into the kitchen, turn on the light and no longer see cockroaches shyly scattering in different directions. Around the trash can, too, everything is “clean”. We are accustomed to calmly leave an open pack of cookies or a sandwich on the table.

By the way, the younger generation may not even know what cockroaches look like. So, carriers of various microbes no longer poison our lives. It would be nice to live here and be happy, but for some reason people do not enjoy freedom.

Can a person feel safe in houses from which even insects have escaped?

Where did the cockroaches from Russian apartments go? The answer will surprise you!

Mobile phones, computers and microwave ovens

It is believed that cockroaches are afraid of radiation from mobile phones, computers and microwave ovens. And it is well justified.

Over the past 10-15 years, the above devices have become part of our lives. Apartments and offices are full of various equipment. When it works, an electromagnetic field is generated in the room. It creates unfavorable conditions for the life of the Prussians.

Scientists are still discussing the effect of radio frequencies on animals and humans. Every year there is more and more evidence that they have a negative impact. Perhaps that is why sensitive cockroaches have disappeared from high-rise buildings.

By the way, for some reason there are no Prussians in those areas where the old GPRS and GSM standards work, that is, in Russia and in most neighboring countries.

Food

Yes, we do have problems with food. GMOs and additives are what a person destroys himself with. Someone says that GMOs and modern food do not carry any danger, and some of the scientists insist that in a few generations a person will not be able to reproduce healthy offspring.

Large-scale experiments on human intervention in the genetic code have brought disappointing conclusions. Scientists are sure that the Prussians disappeared due to regular food poisoning from the human table.

But there is a slight inconsistency here. Why are cockroaches not averse to settling in food warehouses? After all, they are the same products.

Poison and insecticide

Perhaps the cockroaches were afraid of Chinese poison. Although hardly, if you remember the nineties. At first, the insects disappeared, but then they adapted to the poison and returned again. Although it is quite possible that the current poison is much more effective than the previous one.

Since science does not stand still, man has managed to create really strong insecticides. And this is really a serious blow to the Prussians (unlike the traditional poison that we use on our own). Turning to disinfectors, you can be sure that uninvited guests will leave the walls of the home for a long time.

Construction Materials

Another theory says that cockroaches do not like the synthetic building materials that modern apartments are decorated with.

Maybe there is some truth in this? Now few people have enough finances for repairs made from natural materials. Synthetic ones are cheaper and often more practical.

However, this has not been proven. So why did cockroaches disappear in apartments?

Natural selection

There is an opinion that cockroaches lost in the war with a stronger opponent. Perhaps they were forced out of Russian apartments by pharaoh ants, which are distinguished by survivability.

By the way, the disappearance of the Prussians so excited scientists that a proposal was made to list them in the Red Book. Can you imagine?

But biologists and scientists can be understood - cockroaches managed to survive in any conditions for millions of years! They learned to adapt to the poisons that people used to poison them. So what happened to them now?

Purity

Now newspapers from the trash can have been replaced by garbage bags. This "cuts off" cockroaches access to food. According to studies, people have become more likely to clean up.

But the most important thing, according to scientists, is the aggressive household chemicals used by apartment residents. Perhaps it was she who contributed to the disappearance of the Prussians.

But here again something does not add up! In fact, these insects will always find food for themselves. If there is no access to food, they can feed on soap, glue, and microscopic particles of human skin that settle on floors and objects.

Suppose cockroaches have no opportunity to eat at all! It's not a problem. Adult individuals calmly do without food for 30 days, and their larvae - as much as 70.

A bit of mysticism

But lovers of everything mysterious and mystical are sure that the disappearance of cockroaches is a bad omen!

This has already happened - cockroaches disappeared before catastrophes, for example, before pestilence, fires or war. And if this is so, then the world is in for global cataclysms and many more troubles.

But if you think about it, cockroaches disappeared about 10 years ago, and we, fortunately, are alive. Maybe this statement should be ignored?

But how is it really?

Disinfectors only smile sarcastically at all these attacks about the disappearance of cockroaches. They know that the insects did not think to die.

"Mustachioed guests" still settle where there is a lot of garbage and dirt. There are plenty of them in dormitories, garbage cans, as well as in apartments in which the owners are not concerned about cleaning and cleanliness.

And if you go down to the basement, you will be surprised at how vibrant life is in full swing there!

Although the number of sanitizations has indeed decreased in recent years, this does not mean that the Prussians have somehow suffered or died out. They just "moved" to more calm, quiet and damp places.

So don't be surprised to meet a "mustachioed neighbor" in your kitchen!

You can learn more about the reasons for the disappearance of cockroaches from Russian apartments from the video.

To be honest, we do not miss such guests in the house! And you?

After some lull, when the townspeople began to gradually forget how the impudent and gluttonous inhabitants of the kitchens look, and most importantly, they lost the skill of hunting with slippers, the cockroaches returned. And they became noticeably more.

“We haven’t had cockroaches in our apartment for many years. One day they all disappeared. Of course, we were delighted, - writes Inna Lozova from Novosibirsk. - But this year they did not just appear, - there was some insane amount of them! Hurt - does not help. What to do?"

“Cockroaches started appearing last year,” says Yuri Yurchenko. - And there is no unequivocal answer to where they disappeared. But there were several assumptions about their disappearance, although no one has specifically studied this issue yet. Most likely, the appearance of microwaves and cellular communications also influenced, but the main factor in reducing their numbers was the appearance fifteen to twenty years ago of preparations based on second-generation insecticides. When these preparations began to be massively used not only by disinfection organizations, but simply by citizens, then the number of cockroaches began to decline sharply. The problem is that these substances are now outdated, and insects have developed resistance to them: adaptation has taken place.”

According to Yuri Yurchenko, for example, specialists from the Moscow City Disinfection Center say that most of the drugs against the spread of cockroaches, now, alas, no longer work, or have become ineffective. Today, a person has practically no weapons against the mustachioed scourge, but work on the development of new substances to control the number of these synanthropic insects has intensified.

“There is less and less list of substances that can kill,” the entomologist comments. - I talked with people who are engaged in the destruction of insects. And they complain that it is getting more and more difficult to poison the Prussians. And in the European part of Russia the situation is even worse. If the city is large, such as Moscow, for example, complaints are even more frequent.”

cockroach kingdom

Citizens living near landfills every autumn watch literally rivers of cockroaches “flowing” towards residential buildings. The spectacle, to put it mildly, is not for the faint of heart. Meanwhile, insects are simply habitually sent to "winter apartments".

“There is no guarantee that some of the private entrepreneurs do not do this,” Yury Yurchenko comments. - There really is such a possibility. But if the sanitary condition of the house is good, this scheme is unlikely to work.”

Another question is that now it is hardly possible to find a completely “clean” house - the problem of high-rise buildings is that people with completely different ideas about cleanliness and order often coexist in them. If we add to this the often imperfect state of garbage chutes, basements and attics, we get a ready-made cockroach kingdom.

How to deal with cockroaches?

But as for the poison sold in the store, it is difficult to advise any specific name here.

“It is almost impossible to give a guarantee that a specific drug will help get rid of cockroaches,” says Yuri Yurchenko. - First, fakes are not excluded. And not all manufacturers are conscientious. Therefore, I can only recommend the classics - "Tarol Volkova". Which, by the way, you can easily do at home - by mixing boiled yolk with a little sugar and boric acid. This mixture must be decomposed, for example, into plastic bottle caps in places where cockroaches spread - behind the sink, refrigerator, at the computer.

You also need to remember that prevention is much more effective than the fight against already massively breeding insects. Therefore, it is necessary to maintain a satisfactory sanitary condition of the basements of buildings and carry out their regular preventive pest control (for example, in spring and autumn), especially if the apartment building has a garbage chute. To do this, the residents themselves can sometimes be reminded of the management company or housing department of the need for such work, except for the residents themselves, it is unlikely that someone will take care of this.

The disappearance of domestic cockroaches in the early 2000s was rapid. Only oil prices, consumer lending and Vladimir Putin's popularity grew more rapidly. At the same time, they began to joke on the Internet that the Putin regime ...

I think that in another ten years they will quite seriously say that “under Putin there weren’t even cockroaches!” or, they say, “even cockroaches didn’t show their noses!”. In general, then one of the most important signs of our life disappeared. For two hundred years we lived side by side with them - and here it is. The phenomenon has sparked controversy. Various hypotheses have been put forward. Conspiratorial and even otherworldly character. But the exodus of cockroaches was only the beginning.

City rats, bedbugs and even May beetles gradually disappeared from sight. Moles have disappeared somewhere, having ceased to disfigure the English lawns of Rublyov's dachas. “A cockroach or any other synanthropic animal is very sensitive to changes in a person’s life. Society as a whole. Changes in the economy, social and political structure affect them no less than a person ... By the middle of the decade in Russia, changes in these factors, a sharp increase in well-being, forced nature to retreat. The advance of civilization caused the depopulation of cockroaches. But as soon as we take a step back, they will return, ”said Dmitry Zhuzhikov, the leading entomologist of the country, Professor of the Faculty of Biology at Moscow State University. But his words were then lost among glamorous theories.

And this step back seems to have been taken. First, after the New Year, cockroaches reappeared. Then the rats became active. Moles went in the summer. And again, all these incredible coincidences with oil (already cheap), loans (which are not given), etc.

The main thing in the office of Professor MSU Zhuzhikov is not to peer into the interior. Otherwise, it will begin to seem that the walls, shelves and furniture are moving. Barely noticeable movement is going on everywhere. Motionless, surrounded by large glass jars, only Dmitry Pavlovich Zhuzhikov himself sits. This short elderly man is enthusiastically examining the contents of one of the containers (everything is moving there too, I won’t enumerate). It's been about three minutes since I came in, and he's watching everything. This “Professor Zhuk” or “Professor Tarakanov”, as students of the Faculty of Biology affectionately call him.

Excuse me, I have a small upheaval here, - Professor Zhuzhikov said quietly, not looking up from the cans. - The "Greys" almost crushed the "Americans".

This is probably a grand event for science, I suggested.

You think? The professor finally looked up at me. - And in my opinion, these gray cattle just left me without American cockroaches.

About five years ago, crowds of journalists went to Dmitry Zhuzhikov. They needed a solution to the mystery of the disappearance of cockroaches. More precisely, confirmation of near-scientific hypotheses that cockroaches were killed by mobile communications, genetically modified products or secret developments of Rospotrebnadzor. Professor Zhuzhikov disappointed journalists. He gave them simple, logical, devoid of charm fantasy and, apparently, therefore boring explanations of the reasons.

The disappearance of domestic insects went in parallel with the growth of the country's welfare.

The better we lived, the worse the cockroaches, - having covered the jar with a rag, the professor put it in the closet. - Amazing, right? But what do I mean by "better"? Traditionally, cockroaches live in historical centers, where centuries-old communications, wooden floors. And in Moscow, from a good life, the center began to cripple with offices. Of course, cockroaches in some cases gnaw on wires, but the office is not food.

Cockroaches were furiously poisoned by restaurants and supermarkets, furniture factories and dumpling factories. Disinsection took on a nationwide character.

Of course, all this increased sanitary and hygienic conditions. In general, the result is remarkable, it was possible to significantly reduce the number of cockroaches. Not to eliminate completely, it is absolutely unrealistic, but to make sure that they are not conspicuous. But if you look at other countries, everything is much calmer with cockroaches, cockroaches are perceived as inevitable companions ...

The professor dipped his hand into the box of papers and after a second showed the following data: "An ordinary US citizen can safely tolerate five cockroaches a week seen in his house." But America cannot be called a poor or underdeveloped country.

You know, the ideal condition for our cockroach is a cataclysm. A huge jump in numbers, one might say, was before my eyes after the war. All around devastation, unsanitary conditions. In fat stagnant years, a certain decline was recorded. Then perestroika, the nineties, and up again. Today's crisis also has the properties of a cataclysm. People are no longer up to cockroaches. There is tolerance.

The time and place of the meeting, the director of a small company for the removal of rodents and cockroaches Lev Akinchenko appointed with categorical young Moscow intellectual. Friday, six in the evening, cafe "Gogol". Given the theme, it would probably be hard to suggest a worse place. But Akinchenko threw away all my doubts at once with one phrase. “You can eat something,” he says, opening the menu. - I guarantee the quality is quite ... ”Then numerous illustrated brochures, booklets land on the table.

In half an hour we will go together for an urgent order: a resident of New Riga will lay out 15 thousand for a caught rat and traps for the future. Master Konstantin, a two-meter big man in overalls, will call for us: “I eliminate cockroaches, rats, moles - quickly and reliably.” In the cabin of his Gazelle, a giant Maine Coon cat Vasily will sit in an aristocratic pose ... For now, we are in a cafe. Akinchenko orders fish and a hundred grams of vodka for the waiter who comes up.

It’s impossible to restrain cockroaches, - shouting over the music and extraneous voices, Akinchenko said and pointed to the booklet. - The moment is lost, people no longer consider them a serious problem. Many companies reduced their sanitation costs last fall, and a couple of months later the cockroach was already on its way. We are sitting idle, orders have fallen by one and a half to two times. Plus, there is a weakening of control by the sanitary services. A significant part of small and medium-sized businesses have understood this in such a way that now it is possible to save on hygiene as soon as possible. With us, when you loosen your grip, it only gets worse.

But there were many complaints about the abuse of checks.

This is nonsense - in the end it even disciplined people. I will say more - there were even "cockroach wars". Competitors threw each other insects and rats, and then called the right place. But everything is very interesting here: if sanitary work is carried out honestly in a store or warehouse, then not a single pest will linger there.

Akinchenko emptied the decanter. Only now did I feel the intent gazes: the neighboring tables were looking at brochures and my interlocutor. “For thirteen years of work as a murderer, you learn to treat things simply,” Akinchenko later said.

A woman in a dressing gown was waiting for us on the porch of an elegant Novorizh mansion. Her name was Allah. Alla convulsively rubbed her temples:

It is in the bedroom and squeaks terribly, remove it, please ...

Konstantin walked around the house, closing the windows and doors. Then the cat Vasily was brought to the threshold. “The old-fashioned way, ideal for out-of-town orders,” Akinchenko said. For a couple of seconds, the cat froze at the ready, stretching out its ears. The woman looked incredulously at the half-meter Vasily. Suddenly he rushed. There was a hiss, claws scraping across the parquet. Half a minute later the Maine Coon was carrying a rodent in its teeth.

A scout rat, if you don’t catch it, there will be a whole flock here tomorrow,” Akinchenko said. - And so only in one or two months. So get ready. You can buy a semi-annual service card. Poison trap plus weekly check.

Frightened Alla bought two cards at once.